Colts Daily Headlines: November 18th Edition

Intro: Each morning Colts.com will take a look at the top headlines surrounding the Indianapolis Colts from around the globe.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts returned from the weekend off with six straight Sunday games on the horizon. Today’s news looks at the Colts rushing attack from Thursday night and an early preview of the Cardinals.

It’s the style of play that has been echoed since Chuck Pagano took over in early 2012.

Wells takes a look at the Colts when the team’s rushing attack flourishes.

The Colts are 5-1 when Luck’s passes travel 7.7 yards or fewer. They used underneath passes to move the ball and keep drives alive. Luck completed passes to eight different receivers, with tight end Coby Fleener leading the way with eight catches for a career-high 107 yards. Luck's 63.9 completion percentage was his highest since completing 65.4 percent of his attempts against San Francisco in Week 3.

An improved running game helped the Colts’ passing game. They rushed for 137 yards against the Titans.

Luck didn’t have that luxury against St. Louis on Nov. 10. He threw for a season-high 353 yards, but he did so while being under pressure most of the afternoon and also throwing a season-high three interceptions.

Part of the problem in that game was that the Colts dug themselves a 28-point hole in the first half. The other issue was that they were predictable on offense because they only rushed for 18 yards in the game.

“Any time you can have the success running the football, it opens up everything else,” coach Chuck Pagano said. “We had a lot of catch-and-run situations [against the Titans], shallow crossers and things like that. The defense is going to dictate how long you can sit back there in the pocket. … We have opportunities to take our shots, we’re going to take them. We need to loosen guys up and take four or five shots a game down the field, give our guys a chance to make a play and try to take the pressure off. If they’re going to be blitzing you and bringing guys and playing man coverage, then you got to try to hit them.”

The Colts will return from a mini-bye week with a trip to Arizona waiting on Sunday.

Here’s a recap from the Cardinals 27-14 road victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Where else could you have seen a player have a chunk of hair ripped out? A trick play or two? An interception negated because of a timeout? A taunting penalty that led to a touchdown? A fumble that was reviewed but shouldn’t have been? A 91-yard touchdown pass? A quarterback throwing for 419 yards, almost half of which went to a receiver with a sore shoulder?

The only thing that went according to script is the Cardinals won to improve to 6-4, and the Jaguars dropped to 1-9.

“At the end of the day, you’re going to need some ugly wins,” offensive tackle Eric Winston said. “You’re going to need a couple of them over the course of a 16-game season. They’re not all going to be pretty, and make this one up to that.”

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